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{{short description|1947 novel by Compton Mackenzie}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Whisky Galore
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| followed_by = [[Rockets Galore (novel)|Rockets Galore]]
}}
'''''Whisky Galore''''' is a [[novel]] written by the Scottish author [[Compton Mackenzie]].<ref name="Linklater">{{cite book |last=Linklater |first=Andro |date=1992 |title=Compton Mackenzie. A Life |publisher=Hogarth Press |page=261 |isbn=9780701209841}}</ref> It was published in 1947.<ref name="Scotsman2021">{{cite web |url=https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/day-80-years-ago-ss-politician-sinks-unleashing-whisky-galore-3124322 |title=On this day 80 years ago: the SS Politician sinks unleashing 'Whisky Galore' |publisher=The Scotsman |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222001725/https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/day-80-years-ago-ss-politician-sinks-unleashing-whisky-galore-3124322 |url-status=live }}</ref> It was adapted for the cinema under the title ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]''.<ref name="STV">{{cite web |url=https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/whisky-galore-scotch-salvaged-from-shipwreck-up-for-auction |title=Whisky Galore |date=7 July 2020 |publisher=STV News |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222002027/https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/whisky-galore-scotch-salvaged-from-shipwreck-up-for-auction |url-status=live }}</ref> The book has sold several million copies and has been reprinted several times.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hutchinson|first1=Roger|author-link=Roger Hutchinson (writer)|title=Polly: The True Story Behind Whisky Galore|date=2007|publisher=Mainstream Publishing|location=Edinburgh|page=149-150|isbn=978-1-8401-8071-8}}</ref>
It followed a 1943 novel ''[[Keep the Home Guard Turning]]'' in the same setting.▼
==Plot summary==
During the [[Second World War]], the cargo vessel ''S.S. Cabinet Minister'' is wrecked off a remote fictional Scottish island group – Great Todday and Little Todday – with fifty thousand cases of [[whisky]] aboard.
Although the wreck and the escapades over the whisky are at the centre of the story, there is also a lot of background detail about life in the [[Outer Hebrides]], including e.g. culture clashes between the [[Protestant]] island of Great Todday and the [[Roman Catholic]] island of Little Todday. (Mackenzie based the geography of these islands on [[Barra]] and [[Eriskay]] respectively, but in real life they are both Catholic islands). There are various sub-plots including those of two couples who are planning to get married.
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==Origins of the story==
The story was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1941 on the [[Hebrides|Hebridean]] island of [[Eriskay]]<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/historic-sites/ss_politician_whisky_galore_off_eriskay_1_465109|title=SS Politician: Whisky galore off Eriskay|date=14 February 2005|newspaper=The Scotsman}}</ref> when the [[SS Politician|SS ''Politician'']] ran aground with a cargo including 28,000 cases of malt whisky as well as other trade goods headed for Jamaica and New Orleans.<ref name="gastro">{{cite web |last1=Matthew |first1=Taub |title=For Sale: Shipwrecked Whisky That Spent Decades Underwater |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shipwreck-whisky |website=Gastro Obscura |publisher=Atlas Obscura |access-date=9 August 2020 |date=5 August 2020 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807191056/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/shipwreck-whisky |url-status=live }}</ref> Official files released by The National Archives show that it was also carrying a sum of cash. In all, there were nearly 290,000 [[Bank of England note issues#10s.|ten-shilling notes]], which would be worth the equivalent of several million pounds at today's prices. Not all of this was recovered from the wreck.<ref name="gastro"/><ref name="Scotsman2021"/>
Mackenzie wrote the novel while resident on the Isle of [[Barra]] at his house just near [[Barra Airport]].<ref name="Herald">{{cite web|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/23179825.new-12m-distillery-island-links-whisky-galore/ |title=New £12m distillery for island with links to Whisky Galore |date=9 December 2022 |publisher=The Herald |access-date=21 December 2022}}</ref> The house, called Suidheachan, Gaelic for “sitting down place”, was built in 1935 is Category B listed.<ref name="Times">{{cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/retreat-where-whisky-galore-poured-forth-mgd3tfvql |title=Retreat where Whisky Galore poured forth |work=The Times |access-date=21 December 2022 |archive-date=22 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222002213/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/retreat-where-whisky-galore-poured-forth-mgd3tfvql |url-status=live }}</ref>
Mackenzie was said to have based the negative elements of the character Captain Paul Waggett on Dr Bartlett, a personal acquaintance, as an act of personal revenge.<ref name="Linklater">▼
▲
▲Mackenzie was said to have based the negative elements of the character Captain Paul Waggett on Dr Bartlett, a personal acquaintance, as an act of personal revenge.<ref name="Linklater"/>
==Adaptations==
===
The novel was first adapted in 1949 as ''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'',<ref
[[Whisky Galore! (2016 film)|A remake]] of the 1949 film was released in 2016.<ref name="STV"/>▼
▲''[[Whisky Galore! (1949 film)|Whisky Galore!]]'' is a 1949 British [[comedy film]] produced by [[Ealing Studios]], starring [[Basil Radford]], [[Bruce Seton]], [[Joan Greenwood]] and [[Gordon Jackson (actor)|Gordon Jackson]]. It was the directorial debut of [[Alexander Mackendrick]]; the screenplay was by Compton Mackenzie, an adaptation of his novel, and [[Angus MacPhail]].
▲[[Whisky Galore! (2016 film)|A remake]] of the 1949 film was released in 2016.
A theatrical adaptation of the novel, licensed by the Society of Authors (the managers of Compton Mackenzie's literary estate) and written by Paul Godfrey, was first performed as a "bar show" at Perth Theatre in the late 1980s. This adaptation, delivered in the manner of a 1940s radio broadcast, has four BBC Radio Rep actors and a studio manager creating all the locations, characters and sound effects as they would have done in a live radio broadcast. This version was also produced by [[Mull Theatre]] in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and 2014, touring to theatres throughout Scotland.▼
▲====Stage====
Another adaptation of the novel was staged by the [[Brunton Theatre|Brunton Theatre Company]], [[Musselburgh]], under the direction of Charles Nowosielski, in October 1989.<ref>[http://archive.list.co.uk.s3-website.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/the-list/1989-10-13/51/index.html review of ''Whisky Galore'' by Philip Parr], ''The List'', Issue 106, 13 - 26 October 1989, p. 49</ref>
▲A theatrical adaptation of the novel, licensed by the Society of Authors (the managers of Compton Mackenzie's literary estate) and written by Paul Godfrey, was first performed as a "bar show" at Perth Theatre in the late 1980s. This adaptation, delivered in the manner of a 1940s radio broadcast, has four BBC Radio Rep actors and a studio manager creating all the locations, characters and sound effects as they would have done in a live radio broadcast. This version was also produced by Mull Theatre in the late 1990s, early 2000s, and 2014, touring to theatres throughout Scotland.
A musical version of the novel, entitled ''Whisky Galore – A Musical!'', was performed at the [[Pitlochry Festival Theatre]], Scotland in 2009 and 2011. The book was adapted by Shona McKee McNeil and the music was composed by Ian Hammond Brown. A [[Gaelic language]] adaptation of the novel was adapted for the stage by [[Iain Finlay Macleod|Iain Finlay MacLeod]], titled ''Uisge-Beatha Gu Leòr'', for a 2015 co-production by A Play A Pie and A Pint at [[Òran Mór]], Robhanis and the [[National Theatre of Scotland]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/uisge-beatha-gu-leorwhisky-galore/ |title=Uisge-Beatha Gu Leor/Whisky Galore |last1=Dibdin |first1=Tom |date=15 April 2015 |website=the Stage |access-date=30 October 2015 |archive-date=19 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150719044137/https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2015/uisge-beatha-gu-leorwhisky-galore/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Cultural references==
The novel's title influenced the name of the first French discothèque, the Whisky à gogo, opened
==References==
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[[Category:Scottish comedy]]
[[Category:Chatto & Windus books]]
[[Category:
[[Category:1947 in Scotland]]
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